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RAPE

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 900 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RAPE , a territorial See also:

division of the See also:county of See also:Sussex, See also:England, formerly used for various administrative purposes. There are now six of these divisions, See also:Hastings, See also:Pevensey, See also:Lewes, Bramber, See also:Arundel and See also:Chichester, but the latter two apparently formed a single rape at the date of the compilation of Domesday See also:Book. The word, which in England is See also:peculiar to Sussex, is usually said to be closely related to the Icelandic hrepp, a small territorial division which in most, but not in all, cases is identical with the See also:parish; but this explanation, which is unsatisfactory on institutional grounds, has also been declared impossible for philological reasons. As an alternative explanation it has been suggested, that " rape " is an See also:early See also:form of the word " rope "; and that the divisions were so called because they were measured and allotted by the rope. Some See also:confirmation of this is to be found in the words of the See also:Norman chronicler, See also:Dudo of St Quentin, who states that Rollo in distributing See also:Neustria " suis fidelibus terrain funiculo divisit " (J. P. See also:Migne, Patrologiae Cursus cornpletus, torn. cxli. p. 652). It is possible that the rapes represent the shires of the See also:ancient See also:kingdom of Sussex, especially as in the 12th See also:century they had sheriffs of their own. But there is no See also:evidence of the existence of the rape before the Norman See also:Conquest, except such as may be gathered from Domesday Book, and this is far from convincing. After the Conquest each rape had its own See also:lord, and all the See also:land within it, See also:save that which belonged to the See also:king or to ecclesiastical tenants, was held of the lord. Thus the rape as a lordship only differed from other honours and baronies by the fact that the lands of its knights were not scattered over England, but See also:lay together in a continuous See also:tract.

In form the rapes were parallel bands of land See also:

running See also:north and See also:south, and each of them contained a different number of hundreds. The See also:place in which the lord's See also:castle was situate ultimately gave its name to the rape; but in Domesday Book the rapes are often described by the names of their lords, and this is always so in that See also:work in the See also:case of Bramber, which belonged to See also:William de Briouze (rapam Willelmi de Braoza).

End of Article: RAPE

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RAPE (Lat. rapum or rapa, turnip)

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